2023 Community Bank Case Study Competition Journal

2023 COMMUNITY BANK CASE STUDY COMPETITION

remotely. Clarke revealed to us that the bank was examined by the government last year and he said that he does not remember anyone physically visiting the bank as part of the review. When asked how the bank uses technology to generate income, we were told that LINKBANK does not use technology to explicitly drive revenue. However, it does seek to differentiate itself among community banks through its use of technology. Running on cloud software creates synergies and helps the bank to run more efficiently. The efficiency of LINKBANK is part of what drives their aggressive growth strategy. So in that sense, technology is essential to the bottom line. Additionally, the treasury management system called Banno that has been implemented through the Jack Henry conversion is a significant improvement from the Treasury Management platform provided by Fiserv. The system offers more capabilities for commercial clients and is much more user-friendly. The reporting that Banno offers is also much more advanced. LINKBANK also is generous with whom they provide check scanners. Most banks only provide these scanners for large clients because of the cost. However, even small businesses are provided check scanners at LINKBANK. In this way, LINKBANK says they positively impact the local economies in which they operate. So, while technology explicitly generates very little income, it is used to offer customers a differentiated banking experience and thus helps retain business.

The efficiency of LINKBANK is part of what drives their aggressive growth strategy.

This conversion proved to be very beneficial in the wake of their recent merger announcement with Partners Bank. Partners also runs on a Jack Henry core system. While a conversion will be necessary to get the banks on the same version of Jack Henry, we are told that the conversion will be much simpler than the last two. Because of this, LINKBANK will have much more time during the merger process to focus on continuing to provide customers with high quality service. We were told that LINKBANK is subject to regular examinations by regulators just as any other bank might be. However, these audits are relatively seamless because the bank operates on a cloud computing system. This means that the regulators and internal auditors do not need to physically be on-site like they might for other banks. Instead, regulators can access everything they need to review remotely. That said, the technology operations supervisor, Ryan Clarke, stated that he does prefer auditors and regulators to come on-site for when they perform reviews. However, he said that despite this preference, it does not create any material difference for reviews to be performed

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